ANN ARBOR -- Will Hagerup spent his weeks on the practice field and his weekends in the stands last year.

The Michigan punter was suspended for the entire 2013 season, a penalty handed down for an undisclosed violation of team rules. He was allowed to practice alongside teammates and show off the leg that earned him Big Ten punter-of-the-year honors in 2012.

When Saturdays came, though, he was handed a ticket and sent into the seats at Michigan Stadium.

“It was frustrating,” Hagerup said Tuesday. “It was like watching your brothers out there performing and it was exciting when we’d win and frustrating when we wouldn’t.”

It was frustrating for Michigan, too. Hagerup isn’t some forgettable, easily replaced kicker. He’s a 6-foot-4, 225-pound athlete with a violent, booming right foot. He led the Big Ten with a 45.0-yard per punt average as a junior, a U-M record.

“When he’s on, which two years ago, he was on most of the time, he’s very effective at changing the field,” coach Brady Hoke said last week.

Hagerup is a weapon -- one of those rare punters who can change a game. That was missing last season, despite Matt Wile, Michigan’s short-field punter in 2012, doing an admirable job in his absence.

Now Hagerup is back. He has one more year at Michigan -- concluding a career that’s been pockmarked by three suspensions, including last year's -- and no more chances.

He says he’s going to use the most of this latest and last chance -- bringing game-changing ability back to the U-M punting game.

“I think I can be used as a weapon,” Hagerup said, later adding, “I feel as strong and consistent as I ever have. I think getting my mindset fine-tuned over the last couple of years has helped tremendously and the weight training with (strength and conditioning coach Aaron Wellman) and those guys has helped a lot.”

Michigan punter Will Hagerup as a sophomore in 2011. Melanie Maxwell | The Ann Arbor News

Wile last week noted that Hagerup has shown “a definite cannon for a leg.”

But deep bombs down field won’t be enough this season from Hagerup.

The Milwaukee native is also being asked to handle short field and pooch punts, a new territory. While he’s practiced the specialty plenty in the past, doing it in games will be a first.

“I’ve worked at that, but that’s still something I need to improve on,” he said. “But as far as my consistency and being able to hit a spiral and distance and all that, I feel like I had a really consistent (training) camp."

Earlier in his career, Hagerup was mostly concerned with the numbers -- a gaudy punt average being the key figure. He wanted mostly to launch missiles and count yards. As a freshman, he chalked up a 72-yard punt to Purdue’s 3-yard line in the fourth quarter.

That narrow mindset, he says, has been broadened by age.

“This year, I feel confident that if our team is doing well, that I’ll be able to go on the field and help them,” Hagerup said. “I don’t care if it’s 45 yards versus 55 yards, as long as I’m putting the defense in a good position, that’s what I’m worried about.”

So on Saturday -- one year, seven months and 29 days since his last game -- Hagerup will return as Michigan’s punter.

No ticket needed.

“I’ve sort of gone back this week and talked to my parents and my friends about the road that I’ve taken to get to this point,” he concluded, “and the peculiar way of getting there -- sort of recapping some of those less enjoyable times -- and now being four days away from my (first) senior game is just incredible.”

Brendan F. Quinn covers University of Michigan basketball and football. Follow him on Twitter for the latest on Wolverines hoops. He can be contacted at bquinn@mlive.com